3. This authority in the rulers of the church is neither autocra- tical or sovereign, nor nomothetical or legislative, nor despotical or absolute, but organical and ministerial only. The endless contro- versies which have sprung out of the mystery of iniquity, about an autocratical and monarchical government in the church, about 2:)0wer to make laws to bind the consciences of men, yea, to kill and de- stroy them, with the whole manner of the execution of this power, we are not concerned in. A pretence of any such power in the church is destructive of the kingly office of Christ, contrary to ex-
132 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
press commands of Scripture, and condemned by the apostles, Isa. xxxiii. 22; James iv. 12; Matt. xvii. 5, xxiii. 8-11 ; Luke xxii. 25, 26; 2 Cor. i. 24; 1 Cor. iii. 21-23; 2 Cor. iv. 5; 1 Pet. v. 1-3.
4. As the rule of the church, in those by whom it is exercised, is merely 'ministerial, with respect unto the authority of Christ, his law, and the liberty of the church, wherewith he hath made it free, so in its nature it is spiritual, purely and only; so the apostle affirms expressly, 2 Cor. x. 4-6. For its object is spiritual, — namely, the souls and consciences of men, whereunto it extends, which no other human power doth; nor doth it reach those other concerns of men that are subject unto any political power. Its end is spiritual, — namely, the glory of God, in the guidance and direction of the minds and souls of men to live unto him, and come to the enjoy- ment of him. The law of it is spiritual, even the word, command, and direction of Christ himself alone. The acts and exercise of it, in binding and loosing, in remitting and retaining sin, in opening and shutting the king<lom of heaven, are all spiritual merely and only. Neither can there be an instance given of any thing belonging unto the rule of the church that is of another nature; yea, it is sufficient eternally to exclude any power or exercise of it, any act of rule or government, from any interest in church-affairs, that it can be proved to be carnal, political, despotical, of external operation, or not en- tirely spiritual.
5. The change of this government of the chiirch fell out and was introduced gradually, upon an advantage taken from the unmeet- ness of the people to be laid under this spiritual rule ; for the greatest part of them that made up Christian churches being be- come ignorant and carnal, that rule which consists in a spiritual influence on the consciences of men was no way able to retain them within the bounds of outward obedience, which was at last only aimed at. There was therefore another kind of rule and govern- ment judged necessary, to retain them in any order or decorum. And it must be .acknowledged that where the members of the church are not in some degree spiritual, a rule that is merely spi- ritual will be of no great use unto them. But principally this change was introduced by those that were in possession of the rule itself, and that on two grounds : — (1.) Their unskilfulness in the manage- ment of this spiritual rule, or weariness of the duties which are re- quired thereunto, — this made them wilhng to desert it, — with that j)erpetual labour and exercise of all sorts of graces which are re- quired in it, and to embrace another more easy and more suited unto their inclinations. (2.) A desire of the secidar advantages of profit, honour, and veneration, which tendered themselves unto them in another kind of rule. By these means was the original govern- ment of the church, which was of divine institution, utterly lost.
CHURCH POLITY OR RULE, WITH THE DUTY OF ELDERS. 133
and a worldly domination introduced in the room thereof. But the brief delineation given of it before, with what shall now be added, will demonstrate sufficiently that all those disputes and contests which are in the world between the church of Rome and others about church power and rule are utterly foreign unto Christian religion.
I shall therefore briefly inquire into these three things: — 1. What is the skill and 'polity that are required unto the exercise or admi- nistration of the government of the church; 2. What is the sole laiu and ride of it ; 3. What are the acts and duties of it, what it is conversant about, especially those wherein the office of ruling elders doth take place: —
1. The polity of church-government, subjectively considered, is generally supposed to consist, — (1.) In a skill, learning, or understand- ing in the civil, and especially the canon law, with the additional canons accommodating that law unto the present state of things of the nation, to be interpreted according unto the general rules of it. (2.) Knowledge of and acquaintance with the constitution, power, jurisdiction, and practice, of some law-courts, which being, in their original, grant of power, manner of proceeding, pleas and censures, merely secular, are yet called ecclesiastical or spiritual. (3.) A good discretion to understand aright the extent of their power, with the bounds and limits of it ; that on the one hand they let none escape whom they can reach by the discipline of their courts, and on the other not intrench so far on the civil power and the jurisdiction of other courts, according to the law of the land, as to bring themselves into charge or trouble. (4.) An acquaintance with the table of fees, that they may neither lose their own profit nor give advantage unto others to question them for taking more than their due. But in these things we are not at present concerned.